Air China Group - statistics & facts

Air China aims to become the world's leading airline, and in 2021, it was ranked as the sixth most valuable airline brand in the world, with a brand value of 18.6 billion yuan (2.9 billion U. S. dollars). Additionally, it is the most valuable brand in the domestic aviation industry, ahead of its main competitors, such as China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines. As of 2020, the Group had a total fleet of 702 passenger aircraft in service, carrying the passengers to 1,300 destinations worldwide.

Revenue impacted by COVID-19

As with most international passenger airlines, Air China’s performance in 2020 was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis resulted in a 50 percent reduction in operating revenues in 2020. Nevertheless, Air China was ranked as the tenth most productive airline group in the world based on revenue and the second in China that year. To mitigate the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations, the Group adopted an innovative model to transform passenger aircraft into freight operations. This helped the Group increase its air cargo and mail revenue by 50 percent over the previous year to nearly 8.6 billion yuan in 2020. However, despite this growth, the Group recorded a net profit loss of 11.2 billion yuan during that year.

Domestic routes are the key market

Mainland China is Air China's primary market, where it produced nearly 75 percent of the group’s total operating revenues in 2020. That year, the Chinese flag carrier operated 513,747 flights and transported 65.8 million passengers throughout mainland China, contributing to over 88 percent of the Group’s revenue passenger kilometers in 2020. As major competitors on domestic routes, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines carried 93.9 million and 72 million passengers in 2020, respectively. Although Air China does not have the highest passenger traffic in China, the airline is the most used carrier in the country, according to the latest branding report.

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